OLYMPICS/ Culture
Thousands of Beijing couples go for Olympic gold
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-10 10:49
More than 3,000 couples tied the knot exactly a year before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, hoping some of the auspicious "eighth of the eighth" luck would rub off on them as the city started its Games countdown.
According to city government figures, 3,390 couples registered their marriages with local justices on Wednesday, which was the start of autumn in the lunar calendar and already considered an ideal date for marriage.
But the day was given extra significance as Beijing began its Olympic countdown with a dazzling song-and-dance gala in front of Tiananmen, or Gate of Heavenly Peace.
Olympic chief Jacques Rogge and Chinese leaders watched a countdown clock run down to 366 days -- 2008 is a leap year.
The Games will start at 8:00 pm on the eighth day of the eighth month, an auspicious date and time.
In Cantonese, "eight" (baat) is considered lucky as it sounds like the word for wealth and fortune (faat).
A line 500 metres (yards) long circled a district court at 8 a.m., the Beijing News said. One couple said they had been waiting since 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
"We have already waited a whole night so another hour does not matter so much," one man was quoted as saying.
The oldest to tie the knot were both aged 80.
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